Fantasy Football Draft Pick Trade Strategy & Advice (2025)

One thing that has become more and more common in recent years is allowing the trading of fantasy football draft picks, even in traditional redraft leagues. After all, it makes sense. The most fun part of fantasy football is trading, and the least fun part is the offseason.

Why not make the offseason more exciting by introducing the ability to make some trades? Whether your league always could trade picks or you are just getting started, this article will break down some general strategies to keep in mind to put yourself ahead of the pack before the draft even starts.

Fantasy Football Draft Pick Trade Strategy

Think in Tiers

Probably the most important thing to remember when trading fantasy football draft picks is that not all differences in capital are created equally. A five-pick difference in the first round is almost always more important than a five-pick difference in the 10th round. But that’s not the only key factor. It’s also very helpful to think about players in tiers when trading draft picks (this is also a good general drafting strategy, by the way).

Let’s look at a hypothetical example using 2024’s half-PPR average draft position (ADP) data. Imagine you had the fourth overall pick, putting you in line to select Breece Hall (assuming Christian McCaffrey, Tyreek Hill and CeeDee Lamb were the first three players off the board).

At the time, it would have been very reasonable to consider Hall as being in a tier that also includes each of the next four players: Bijan Robinson, Justin Jefferson, Ja’Marr Chase and Amon-Ra St. Brown. But it would also be reasonable to have one of those players, Hall or otherwise, as your clear favorite option.

If you are at the fourth pick and would be roughly equally happy with any of those five players, that’s a sign you should hit the lines of the managers with the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth overall picks. Hopefully, one of them has a player they don’t want to miss and you can get value later in the draft in exchange for moving down while still keeping a pick in the same tier.

Of course, the same also works in reverse. If you happen to have the 20th overall pick but think there is a large drop-off after the 18th player in fantasy ADP, you should be willing to pay up to jump into that 18th spot (or slightly higher if necessary). Of course, all of these tiers won’t shake out as we expect them to once the season kicks off. But knowing your tiers and always trying to land your picks at the back of them is a surefire way to end up with a roster you love at the end of the draft.

When in Doubt, Trade Up

This is more of a personal preference, but I always prefer to trade up. In the vast majority of fantasy football leagues, true studs make all the difference, and by far the best shot at landing a true game-changer comes from a pick in the first few rounds.

Meanwhile, it’s incredible how often even middle-round picks end up being entirely useless. Looking back at 2024’s ADP, here were the players selected in the sixth round in 12-team leagues (picks 61-72):

There are some players there that helped your team, but there are also plenty of complete zeroes. More importantly, I wouldn’t call any of these players league winners. Terry McLaurin was probably the most successful pick, and even he was just the WR15 in points per game in a down year for the position.

With this in mind, I recommend being willing to pay a premium if you get a chance to acquire a pick in the first few rounds of the draft without giving up one in return. Usually, the way to do this is by trading two middle-round picks for an early pick and a very late pick. This is a high-risk strategy, but we play the game to finish first, not fourth. Hitting on an extra early-round pick so you have one more true difference-maker than the rest of your league is a shortcut to creating a juggernaut.

Know Your League

This is probably the most important single piece of fantasy advice for all scenarios, and it still holds true when you are preparing to make trades before or during the draft. Every fantasy football league is different, and those differences can radically change what is the most effective strategy. This includes not just differences in league format and rules, but also differences in how active your league is.

Is your league shallow with plenty of options on the waiver wire? Trading up is probably even more beneficial than it usually is. You can make up for a lack of middle-round capital by staying active and pouncing on emerging studs during the season. But if your league has deep rosters and active managers, you might want to take a more cautious approach. High-risk strategies like trading up can backfire even more spectacularly if the waiver wire is consistently picked bare.

On the other hand, things like a league’s scoring settings don’t matter as much as you might think for building your draft pick trade strategy. Whether your league is PPR or standard, for example, should already be accounted for in the rankings and tiers you are using to approach your draft. There’s no need to double-count these changes on a trade-by-trade basis.

Get Your Guys

Here’s the dirty secret that has been lurking beneath this entire article: Fantasy football rankings are always wrong. Having a process (and some tier-based rankings) you believe in is the best way to maximize your chances of being wrong as infrequently as possible, but the NFL is simply too unpredictable to get everything right. Last year’s ADP will always look incredibly stupid in hindsight, even after we spent thousands of hours fine-tuning things throughout the offseason.

It’s easy to become a fantasy football nihilist when considering this fact, but I prefer to think of it as freeing. Everyone is going to be wrong anyway, so don’t stress too much about eeking out every last bit of perceived value, especially if you are playing in a relatively casual league.

If you are convinced Saquon Barkley is going to follow up his dominant season with an even better one, trade up for that 1.01. If you have the first-overall pick but all you want is to draft Brian Thomas Jr., see if you can slide down a few spots closer to his ADP, even if you’re not getting the best value in return.

At the end of the day, fantasy football is about fun (unless you’re in a very high-stakes league, but those don’t usually allow pick trading anyway). Use draft pick trading to get the team you want, not to gain perceived value in terms of picks that will become irrelevant within a few weeks anyway.

Ted Chmyz is a fantasy football contributor for FantasyPros.com. Find him on Twitter @Tchmyz for more fantasy content or to ask questions.

Articles Fantasy Draft Advice NFL Trade Advice Breece Hall Christian McCaffrey Tyreek Hill CeeDee Lamb Bijan Robinson Justin Jefferson Ja’Marr Chase Amon-Ra St. Brown Saquon Barkley Brian Thomas Jr.